Momentum

Who Do You Want? Who Wants You?

Every Monday afternoon Momentum teams gather at Grand Valley State University’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation to discuss the relevance of Guy Kawasaki’s book The Art of the Start and meet with area start up gurus. Momentum’s Art of the Start discussions are facilitated by Mike Morin, Momentum Team Director and SVP at MediaGuide .

Momentum teams were fortunate to have Amy Kraal, Senior Consultant and Partner at HROI join their discussion on recruiting.

So you’re a few months into your new venture, you’ve had a few small successes, but you’re running on fumes and need help to keep things going. Where do you begin? Well, hopefully you’ve already begun. Recruiting, like nearly every aspect of your start up relies heavily on your ability to network. Hopefully you’re always building connections and keeping track of those individuals who may be a good fit for your organization down the road. Now, how do you get quality people to want to work for your start-up? Amy Krall gave our Momentum teams plenty of great tips.

Tips for Start-Ups:

Prep Work
Even if you are in week two of your start up – keep your eye out for talent. You probably can’t afford to add someone right now, but you should always build connections with talented people. Someday when you do need to bring someone on board, your network of talent will be a huge asset.

Even when you aren’t hiring, handle job inquiries with respect. Let people know that you appreciate their interest in working for your company, and that you’d like to stay in contact even though you aren’t hiring at the moment.

There comes a point when contracting out just doesn’t make sense any more. Evaluate your needs. Are they long term or short term needs? What are the benefits to doing it internally VS externally?

Posting and Interviewing
Post for success. Create a job that someone would want. Just because you want to get that laundry list of tasks you can’t stand off of your plate. You should never create a crappy job that no one wants to do. You want to attract talent, and you want this talent to enjoy most of what they do.

You have to know why this job is going to exist. It is ok if you don’t have a formal job description, but always document what your needs and priorities are right at the moment. Also recognize the internal strengths and weaknesses of your company.

It is always your goal to make sure that good people want to work for you. You must build excitement and passion – but be aware of what you are telling people and stay consistent.

Provide the people who don’t make the cut with thank you letters. Don’t jerk people around. If you say you’ll follow up, do so. It only takes one bad impression of your company to do damage to your image. If you are known as a company that doesn’t keep its promises you are probably chasing good talent away.

Be honest and transparent with your candidates. Don’t over sell your position or what stage your company is in.

It’s ok to say ‘We are just starting up and can’t afford to pay you very well. We work really long, hard hours and don’t pay for benefits, but we are a bunch of people with a lot of passion working through this phase.’ Read your candidates face. You’ll be able to tell if they can handle your environment.

Always ask the candidate’s pay scale/benefit expectations from the beginning. The longer you wait in the interview process, the more expensive the candidate gets. Asking this information is always awkward but pin them down to make sure it makes sense for the two parties to continue. This information will also help you build an awesome offer, if you chose to hire this person.

Good Interview Questions
It is important to ask the interviewee your questions before answering theirs. This helps keep their answers honest and less catered to your specific needs.

During phone screenings it is important to ask the basics that tell you if this person is genuinely interested:
-What prompted you to apply to this position?
-What about this particular position interests you?
-Why do you want to leave your current position?

Use your questions to understand what motivates this individual.
-What was your favorite part of X job?
-When you come home from work and had a great day, what was your day like?

Is this person really interested in your organization? Did they do their homework?
-What would you do within your first 100 days on the job to benefit our organization?
-Given our model/approach, how will you be effective?

Hiring
Candidates are selling themselves during the interview process. How can you make sure that they can really perform at the levels they claim? Sometimes it is worth spending a little money upfront to make sure this person has the skill set you absolutely need. An affordable resource for skill validation is http://www.proveit.com.

You know what skill set is required to fill your opening, don’t get distracted by shiny Corvettes when all you really need is a Malibu to get the job done. Don’t get caught up in the people who knock your socks off. Stay true to the reality of your situation.

Don’t get distracted by passionate visionaries who are a lot like you. Sure, you can relate to this person and they’d probably be fun to have on your team, but most of the time you need someone who can hunker down and build infrastructure.

When hiring try to find a candidate that is looking for a challenge, hopefully your position will be a step up for them. These individuals are likely to perform and stick with you.

Try not to hire individuals who are overly qualified. They will be short term, and probably get bored quickly with your position.

Always feel good about the people you hire. It is horrible to dread walking into your office because that new hire just doesn’t mesh with your personality.

Keep in mind that you aren’t hiring for life. Two to three years of really good work would be great!

Keep your staff happy. Find out what is important to them. By really getting to know a new hire you’ll be able to provide them with a satisfying work experience and they will go above and beyond for you.

A HUGE thank you to Amy Kraal for all of her insight, help and awesome handouts!